Episode #267: The Woman Who Lived

"People like us, we go on too long. We forget what matters. The last thing we need is each other."

Episode #267:      The Woman Who Lived.

Companions:        The 12th Doctor.

Air Date:             24th October 2015.

Adventuring on his own for a while, the Doctor seeks out an artefact of great power that could spell disaster in the wrong hands: the Eyes of Hades. However, he soon comes face to face with consequences of one of his past acts of compassion, when he meets an immortal he created, who has now lost all hope with a heart filled with centuries of pain.

The Woman Who Lived is a follow up to the previous adventure, The Girl Who Died. The Doctor while travelling without Clara ends up in 1651 and encounters Ashildr again. The general plot of the episode isn't all that great and doesn't really go anywhere worthwhile. However, you aren't watching for the obvious plot story. Instead, The Woman Who Lived is about the darker side of being immortal. Ashildr has grown from an imaginative young girl into a woman who has seen loved ones grow old and die, and has fallen into the grey where she has lived too many lifetimes and has lost some of her humanity. This is what makes the episode in my opinion.

For such a darker episode there is slightly too much humour involved in the attempt to lighten in somewhat. Modern jokes, puns, and gallows humour (literally) cause a loss of immersion for me. I know I keep saying it through these episode reviews but it's a problem with modern Doctor Who. Coming from the Doctor, such quips are fitting and appropriate. It's one of the personality quirks that we like from the character. But when you have characters from the 17th century making such jokes it pulls the immersion out of it's historical placement. 

The Woman Who lived isn't a great episode by any means but it isn't a bad one either. It has it's flaws but generally it works compared to many of the current episode formats. It continues the set up of where the character of Ashildr goes and I like the change to her character and the idea that she has always been there in the background of the Doctor's adventures on Earth and maybe elsewhere. That itself gets a thumbs up from me if the story isn't totally engaging.

Episode #105 : City of Death

"Duggan, why is it that every time I start to talk to someone, you knock them unconscious?"

Episode 105:    The City of Death.
Companions:   4th Doctor and Romana.
Air Date:          Four episodes. 29th September to 20th October 1979.

While taking in the sights of Paris in 1979, the Fourth Doctor and Romana sense that someone is tampering with time. Who is the mysterious Count Scarlioni? Why does he seem to have counterparts scattered through time? And just how many copies of the Mona Lisa did Leonardo da Vinci paint?

The City of Death deals with Scarroth, the last of the Jaggaroth race. Their space ship landed on Earth before life appeared but an accident or malfunction caused their craft to explode. The resulting radiation triggered the primordial soup and from that all life on Earth began. Unfortunately Scarroth is split in several versions of himself throughout time up until the 1970's. These versions seem to have some limited ability to communicate with one another and are planning on travelling back in time to prevent their destruction. Which means of course that mankind would never have existed. The plot is likewise rather convoluted and not so well written.

Scarroth would have made for an interesting villain if he didn't seem some two dimensional. In fact, he is a villain who comes across as yet another James Bond villain although one with green wriggly skin and a cyclopean eye. He has a thuggish henchman who goes along with his orders even though he seems to know exactly what his master is trying to do.

Scarroth is played by Julian Glover who you may remember as the AT AT commander assault Hoth Base in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. You have also seen him more recently in Game of Thrones. There is also a brief cameo by John Cleese as a supposed art expert in the Louvre.

The story is set in Paris and has plenty of on location shots of the Doctor and Romana crossing Parisian streets and on the Eiffel Tower. When I say plenty I mean too many. After a while you just starting thinking "yes, we know you filmed all this in Paris. Please get on with it." Nice to see that the show can get out and about a bit more though.

There is one continuity niggle that bugs me in this one. Only a couple stories ago the Doctor fitted a randomizer to the TARDIS so that the Black Guardian couldn't find them and yet in City of Death the Doctor time travels to visit Leonardo's workshop in 1505 and then back to Paris in 1979 directly. It's only a small niggle but it feels like the idea of the randomizer was forgotten by the writers.

City of Death is not one of my favourites. In fact I think it is somewhat below par. A more three dimensional villain would have made it better though you cannot fault Julian Glovers acting.

Episode #86 : The Masque of Mandragora

"Had it not been you, there would have been other travellers drawn into Mandragora's Helix. Earth had to be possessed and checked. Man's curiosity might lead him away from this planet until, ultimately, the galaxy itself might not contain him. We of Mandragora will not allow a rival power within our domain."

Episode 86:   The Masque of Mandragora.
Companions: 4th Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith.
Air Date:       Four episodes. 4th to 25th September 1976.

An encounter with the living energy structure known as the Mandragora Helix leads the TARDIS to 15th century Italy. Between palace intrigue, the machinations of a sinister cult and a rogue fragment of Helix energy, the Fourth Doctor and Sarah have their hands full. There is not much time, for when Mandragora swallows The Moon, it will be time to strike.

There hasn't been a historical story for some time and this time we return to 15th century Italy though the Doctor hasn't come alone. He has been followed by part of the Madragora Helix, a sentient energy storm in space, and for reasons largely unknown it fears mankind's advancement and seeks to stop us in the past. It is nice to have an historical story again, even if only partly.

Unfortunately this story is another let down. The elements with the Mandragora energy don't make much sense when you stop to think about it and the story is once again dragged out over four episodes, making it too long. I found myself rather distracted about half way through because nothing was really happening. When the end comes, it just ends. No real explanation for how it was defeated. Very odd.

This story is the first to explain that it is a "Time Lord gift" (later the TARDIS) that allows everyone, companion and others alike, to understand one another even though they may not speak the same language.

The Masque of Mandragora is a fairly bland story. You can see that it is trying to capitalise on the recent horror approach to stories but it falls very short this time.

Episode #22 : The Massacre of St Barthlomew's Eve

"My dear Steven, history sometimes gives us a terrible shock, and that is because we don't quite fully understand. Why should we? After all, we're too small to realise its final pattern. Therefore don't try and judge it from where you stand."

Episode 22:   The Massacre of St Barthlomew's Eve.
Companions: The 1st Doctor and Steven Taylor.
Air Date:        Four episodes. 5th to 26th February 1966.

The TARDIS materialises in Paris in the year 1572 and The Doctor decides to visit the famous apothecary Charles Preslin. Steven, meanwhile, is befriended by a group of Huguenots from the household of the Protestant Admiral de Coligny. Having rescued a young serving girl, Anne Chaplet, from some pursuing guards, the Huguenots gain their first inkling of a heinous plan being hatched at the command of the Catholic Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici.

This is another story that has been lost to us so this may be a very short review. It is also another purely historical story that once again, by the story synopsis, appears to fail in being interesting. it isn't even a well known period in history. Prior to learning about this story in the early 1990's I had never even heard of the events surrounding this. Certainly nothing that was ever covered in my history lessons at school.

Other than that there isn't much to say about this story sadly.

However at the end of the story the Doctor and Steven do land briefly in modern day London, accidentily picking up a new companion...

Episode #4 : Marco Polo

 

"We're always in trouble! Isn't this extraordinary - it follows us everywhere!"

 

 

Episode 4:      Marco Polo.

Companions: The 1st Doctor, Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright.

Air Date:        Seven episodes. 22nd February to 4th April 1964.

 

Arriving in Central Asia in 1289, the Doctor and his companions join the caravan of the famous Venetian explorer Marco Polo as it makes its way from the snowy heights of the Pamir Plateau, across the treacherous Gobi Desert and through the heart of imperial Cathay.

Unfortunately I have been unable to watch this story as I believe that it no longer exists except in isolated fragments and stills. Even so I have read numerous plot and story write ups about it on several different fan sites.

The story is the first to feature an actual historical character in this case the titular Marco Polo. As I have mentioned previously the show was supposed to be an educational tool not just a science fiction story. In this case it tries to show some backstop to the character of Marco Polo. Thankfully there aren't too many historical stories as I find in general those from this era tend to be overly long and in general not all that interesting. The show works better when it incorporates some horror or science fiction into the historical.

Not having been able to watch the story I can only go by what I have read of it. If I am honest I think I would have been quite bored with this one as it seems that nothing much actually happens. There is no real plot other than Polo taking the companions and the TARDIS to Cathay and interactions with the Mongols.